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The Glenbow Museum is working together with artist/curator Frederick McDonald to develop a new Aboriginal Art exhibit in 2008. Our goal is to consider both the traditional art forms alongside contemporary paintings and multimedia work. We’re not sure how we will do this yet, but to us, this is a breath of fresh air! As a curatorial team, we are many voices: Gerry Conaty (Director of Curators), Beth Carter (Ethnology Curator), Quyen Hoang (Art Curator) and Frederick McDonald. Through this blog, we will share our thoughts and ideas as we move forward with the exhibit development. We invite you to contribute your comments.

We are pleased to welcome Enbridge and SuncorEnergy as our Co-presenting sponsors for the exhibit.

Our Programming sponsor is Devon Canada.

Like this:

Today was our third team meeting and I was requested to write a note on the blog. Then I guess I have no choice but to write a little bit about me and how I feel about being a “French intern” working on an exhibition project with four experienced curators.

At the beginning of November, I had an interview with Beth and Gerry, who agreed to have me work with them as an intern on that project. I arrived in Calgary in early October and I’m going back to France in July. Since I’m here to carry on with my Master’s thesis research (which I started in France last year) which deals with Aboriginal representation in museums and art galleries, I thought it would be a good idea to come by to the Glenbow and see if they might be interested in having a French student who does not know much about Aboriginal art, art history, ethnology or even museum curating (but who is eager to learn) work on this project.

And it worked!

I’m now part of the team and even though I still find it hard to express my views in front of such a knowledgeable group of people, I love the idea of sharing points of view, discussing and confronting different perspectives and working as a team to try and set up, as Quyen said so enthusiastically this morning, an “exceptional show”.

Our meetings have been very productive so far, and I feel like I’ve already learnt a great deal.

And I must say that today was even more enriching for me, since, after all the brainstorming and sharing of each other’s expectations that went on during the meeting, then I came to learn how to use chopsticks as we all went out for lunch in Chinatown. I guess that’s why we say in French : “Les voyages forment la jeunesse”.

I’ve been folowing the blog and the show. I am too a master’s student from France (EHESS) with the same thesis research and topic as yours. I came to France from the USA being half American and curating exhibitions of contemporary native art and working alongside many artits where many of these issues were brought up. Ca me f erait tres plaisir de te parler/rencontrer! Je n’ai pas vraiment rencontre enormement d’etudiants Francais qui s’interessent a un niveau tres approfondi a ce sujet. Dans quelle ecole fais-tu ton master?